Saturday, 13 May 2017

Another Bond-Flandry Parallel

When we compare Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry with Ian Fleming's James Bond, we should not forget that Flandry's fiancee was murdered and that Bond's wife was murdered immediately after their wedding. This has got to be a major parallel.

Flandry responds by immediately going into action against his enemies whereas Bond goes to pieces, nearly gets himself killed, nearly gets other people killed and nearly gets fired from the Secret Service. The story of how Bond pulls himself back together fills the two concluding novels of that series. At the end, Bond is back to normal but Fleming had died before the last novel was published whereas, at the end of Flandry's series, Flandry is a Fleet Admiral and his daughter has taken centre stage.

Flandry is sustained by antisenescence. Bond is sustained by Fleming revising his biography to knock ten years off his life. Nevertheless, if Anderson had continued that series, then succeeding novels would have been about Flandry's daughter. If Fleming had lived longer and written more, then another 00 agent should have come on-stage. Bond could not plausibly have remained active any longer.

1 comment:

I agree the parallel you found with Flandry and Bond was interesting and valid. Yes, there were two ways men who had suffered such traumatic losses could have reacted: either the grim determination with which Flandry worked to destroy his enemies, or to fall to pieces as Bond did.

Yes, Fleming could not have indefinitely kept Bond working as a field agent. He would have to either retire or be promoted to higher rank doing administrative and staff work. Perhaps OO7 might even have succeeded M and become M himself!